TRANSCRIPTS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAILFraudulent elections and election monitor lizards

By
Malinda SeneviratneSomeone once said, "Even Gods kingdom is not a democracy; He
doesnt stand for election". I dont believe in god, but this must be
really bad news to those who do. For it follows, sadly, that lesser mortals have no
earthly reason to complain about their will being hijacked by unscrupulous politicians.
For now, even us atheists dont have much to celebrate, for "a fraudulent
election", has for all practical purposes emerged as an inevitability. Stuffing
ballot-boxes, voter intimidation and impersonation, etc., etc., is all part and parcel of
the game. And like all games, there are rules. The main rule is, "Just Do it!"
(like Nike). But wait a minute. Theres something in the small print. It says,
"by hook or by crook!" Sad, no?

We have all heard about the Golden Rule: he who has the gold makes the rules. This
dictum has such universal validity that I am surprised that god forgot to get one of his
many prophets to inscribe it in one of His many holy books. Would have saved quite a bit
of bloodshed, I think.

As I said, the Golden Rule applies to all things. Even election. I should say,
especially elections. Profit-mad business people are not given to charity except to dodge
the Inland Revenue Department. They dont spend money. They invest. So there is a
good commerce between political candidates/parties and business people. Demand and supply
figure in these transactions, market predictions are analysed and if youve played
your cards right, you are likely to reap profits. I am sure a significant number of the
sillara veerayas who made up that dubious organisation, Sri Lanka First, have already
invested heavily in these elections. This is also electoral fraud, in my mind.

Actually we didnt have to wait for parliament to be dissolved to know that the
coming elections would be fraud-ridden. With respect to the proportional representation
system, articles 96-99 in the constitution clearly state that the number of
representatives from a given district is dependent on its number of voters. We all know
that thousands and thousands of Tamil people (not to mention Muslims and Sinhalese) have
fled Tamil terrorism in Jaffna. They have walked into the more hospitable areas in the
Western Province to live among the Sinhalese. This exodus has not been factored in when
the Elections Commissioner assigned numbers to Jaffna and the Wanni.

Thus, Tamils already suffering from "systemic discrimination" get at least 2
extra MPs to tout Eelamism in parliament. And thats not all, all those Tamils who
took up residence in Colombo now constitute a block vote, enhancing the chances of a Tamil
party getting another one or two seats from this district. So, before the starters
gun has been fired and long before live bullets are sprayed in the name of democracy, the
people of the South have been cheated.

Fraud is bad, everyone will agree. What is more pernicious is to whitewash fraud. Over
the years, our politicians (usually governments in power) have devised a neat method to
tell disgruntled people to go to hell if they complain about not being allowed to
participate freely in a fair election, for giving respectability to the lie is as
important as rigging. Now we have a fascinating species that comes flying through the air,
meet up with their local cousins, potter around polling booths, enjoy the sun, the beach,
the wild life, not to mention five star luxury and go home well holidayed. I call them
election monitor lizards.

There are, as I said, two kinds. The foreign ones are usually white. You know, they
come from countries where nothing untoward happens during elections. And they are white,
let me repeat. So, they dont lie. They are honest, impartial creatures, as impartial
as say, Eric Solheim, who is said to be as neutral as god himself.

As I said, they have a ball here. All they have to do by way of "work" is to
come up with a report. They report isolated incidents (they cant cover everything,
for they too have their limitations although coming here from those heavenly territories
in Europe and North America). And even if they were to report gross violations of the
elections law, results are never invalidated. Fresh elections are never called. Rohana
Wijeweeras election petition has probably gathered a lot of dust over the past 19
years, I am sure.

Just to make clear about how "reliable" these monitors are, let me refer our
readers to a recantation offered by a British lady who was on one of the teams watching
out for democracy in our country. She decided to rat on the rest of her gang about 4
months after the PA was "elected" last October. She officially
"disassociated" herself from the "findings" of the report. As we say
in Sinhala this happened long, long after the perahera had passed.

Who are these people? The Uththareethara Sabhava of all things political in this
country? People dont seem to realise that each time we say "Aney,
come-ko", these people dont stop poking their fingers all over our body
politic. They gouge out eyes. Maybe thats why we are so blind.

Time to say, "No way Jose; enough is enough!" If you are planning to come
here, dont. If you are already here, please vacate your plush hotel rooms and find
another place to spend your vacation. Or pay up. For we are a poor country. We just
cant afford to pay for trash, especially garbage that helps wipe guilt off the faces
of corrupt and belligerent politicians.

Then there are our local monitor lizards, the home-grown types. They are the
grandmasters of "civil society". They too come up with reports (again long after
the nettuwas and the thammattam karayas are done with their performances). They probably
do a better job than their sudu cousins in terms of coverage. At the end of the day all
they have done is added some numbers to a story that is not news to anyone. It is a short
story with a simple title: "The Election Was Rigged".

And they too get paid. They probably love elections. Each election constitutes a
veritable illama, a rich vein through which courses bubbling dollars and pounds. Easy to
tap. All they have to do is to have a post-election seminar where "findings" are
presented to the media and make sure that mention is made of how Tamils in the
"uncleared" areas could not vote. And of course be hush-hush about the
implications of such statements, viz. it is only in the "cleared" (i.e. non-LTTE
controlled) areas where people get to exercise their franchise!

Please Mr. Kingsley Rodrigo, and Dr. Pakaiasothy Saravanamuttu, tell us how much your
respective organisations got to ensure a free and fair election. Tell us who gave you the
money, how much you spent on travelling, food, hotels etc. In fact give us all the
details. The public you are so fond of would love to know, I am sure.

I dont mind monitor lizards. My problem is that they should leave monitoring
elections to the people. Until such time a system of checks and balances are developed
organically by the people themselves, the most these people can do is to bat for the party
in power, one way or the other.

I, for one, have no faith in people who get paid to champion the grievances of ordinary
people. It only means you have a price. Means you can be bought. And, I am willing to bet,
for sillara amounts too.